The café situated right across the main road from Nagazora International Airport was clearly in a prime, high-traffic location.
Naturally, by the time Raiden Mei, MEI, and Kevin walked through the doors, there was hardly an empty seat in sight.
Mei clearly hadn't anticipated the crowd.
And MEI couldn't be expected to factor every little mundane detail into her calculations.
Fortunately, luck was on their side. Just as Mei was about to suggest they go somewhere else, Kevin's sharp eyes caught a small two-seater table tucked in the corner by the floor-to-ceiling windows. The previous occupants had just left, and a busboy was already wiping it down.
They lingered nearby for a moment. Once the cleaner finished and walked away, Kevin simply dragged over an extra chair, and they made do.
A few moments later...
"Ayako, you take that table."
"Got it, Manager."
A brief exchange drifted over from the front counter. Raiden Mei and the others subconsciously glanced toward the voices, but paid them no mind.
Shortly after...
"What can I get for you three today?"
A waitress with shoulder-length hair stepped up to their small table, order pad in hand.
"Fruit Foam Latte!"
"Fruit Foam Latte!"
"Uh, I'll have what MEI's having."
Ordering aside—and ignoring Kevin's classic 'make it two' routine—Raiden Mei and MEI exchanged a fleeting look of surprise. Neither had expected their tastes in coffee to be an exact match.
Once the waitress walked off to submit their tickets, MEI took the initiative to break the silence.
"Miss Hokushin, if you have something you want to discuss with Kevin and me, you can speak freely now."
It was obvious MEI felt relatively secure in such a packed, public space. By all normal metrics of common sense, her logic was perfectly sound.
Except, the topic Raiden Mei was about to broach threw common sense entirely out the window.
"Miss MEI, Mr. Kevin." Raiden Mei paused, weighing her next words carefully. "First, I'd like to ask: have either of you ever heard of the concept of 'Honkai' before?"
At that...
"Honkai?" MEI and Kevin traded glances.
MEI was the first to speak up. "Are you referring to the psychological concept of a mental breakdown, or a structural collapse?"
"No." Raiden Mei shook her head. "The 'Honkai' I'm talking about is a natural disaster."
"A supernatural cataclysm... born specifically to target civilization!"
With that, she began patiently explaining what little she knew about the Honkai.
Meanwhile, at another table for two just a short distance away.
"I have to say, watching this is quite the trip."
Dressed as a quiet literary girl, Puppet of Domination: Sparkle rested her cheek against her right hand and let out a soft sigh. "Raiden Mei... to think she's doing exactly what i once did to her."
She tilted her head, glancing at the disguised Kevin Kaslana sitting directly across from her. "And of all people, she's trying to educate you and MEI about it... the two people in Earth's history who understand the Honkai better than anyone else."
"Tell me, do we call this 'déjà vu', or just the ultimate cosmic irony?"
In response to her question...
"..."
Kevin Kaslana chose silence.
Seeing his reaction...
"Tch. Boring." Puppet of Domination: Sparkle pouted, clearly finding him to be no fun.
But then... "Keep wearing that icy poker face, and your 'mask' just might slip~"
...
This time, Kevin Kaslana wasn't just silent. He was utterly speechless.
His current disguise was courtesy of the Puppet of Domination: Sparkle. Earlier, she had pulled a red-and-white mask out of thin air, skipped over, and slapped it right onto his face. Just like that, the former Sovereign of World Serpent was downgraded from a handsome, aloof, white-haired youth—well, arguably—into a frail little old man in a flat cap, his face mapped with deep wrinkles.
Kevin was already well acquainted with her malicious sense of humor. She had deliberately chosen a form that forced him to hunch over and feign a pathetic hobble every second of the day. Walking side-by-side, they looked exactly like a sweet little granddaughter dragging her perpetually sour-faced, grumpy grandpa out for a stroll.
She hadn't stopped giggling at him the entire walk.
One minute she was casually threatening him with world-ending disasters, and the next she was acting like an overgrown brat, completely consumed by her own amusement.
And he, evidently, was the punchline.
In short, Kevin Kaslana couldn't quite understand the young girl in front of him... let alone the myriad-faced entity behind her.
Perhaps this was what it meant to be a "God."
Fickle, emotions beyond mortal comprehension, capable of breathing life into a world or extinguishing it with a single thought.
Right now, Kevin couldn't help but feel like he was walking on eggshells around a waking tiger.
But he couldn't back down.
Just then...
"Ah?"
Not far away, in the corner by the café's floor-to-ceiling window, the other Kevin suddenly shot to his feet with a yelp.
His unprompted, startled outburst instantly drew the attention of nearly everyone in the café.
MEI, thoroughly embarrassed, ducked her head and tugged at the hem of his shirt.
Raiden Mei blinked in surprise.
This rash, impulsive behavior... why did it feel so much like the old Kiana?
Kevin finally realized what he'd done. He stood there, scratching his head and bowing awkwardly, apologizing profusely to the disturbed patrons around them.
Once he finally sat back down...
"Is everything you just said true?" Kevin asked, leaning right up into Raiden Mei's personal space.
Careless as always, he didn't think twice about closing the distance, completely unaware of how uncomfortably close he was.
Sitting beside him, MEI frowned slightly.
But pushing aside that tiny flare of annoyance, her mind was fixated on something else entirely.
"Honkai, Deadweights, Honkai Beasts, Herrschers, Honkai Syndrome, and... The Moths Who Chase the Flames?"
She had just heard Raiden Mei rattle off those terms one after another. And on top of that, she'd delivered a grim prophecy: the Third Honkai Eruption was about to break out right here in Nagazora.
Honestly, MEI was starting to suspect that this 'Miss Hokushin' in front of them was suffering from... what was the term again?
Oh, right.
Chuunibyou.
Because everything she'd just shared sounded exactly like the worldbuilding for some supernatural fantasy anime.
For now, MEI remained deeply skeptical.
And the *only* reason she was merely skeptical, rather than dismissing the girl out of hand, was because this Miss Hokushin—who was obviously using an alias—looked far too much like her.
If not for that single detail, MEI would have given her a wide berth and avoided any future contact.
At most, she would have gone home, recounted today's bizarre encounter to her father—an internationally renowned electromagnetic physicist—and let him dispel that "eleven thousand to one" possibility lingering in her mind.
Of course, if there was actual truth to the woman's words, MEI would upgrade her status from the ignorant masses to the informed.
And if it was all just baseless nonsense, she wouldn't lose a thing. It would merely serve as idle chatter to kill time with her father.
In short, MEI remained perfectly rational.
Kevin, however, swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.
He even—
"The Third Honkai Eruption, starting right here in Nagazora... it'll drag the entire East Asian region down with it?"
The hot-blooded teenager clearly couldn't stomach the thought.
But right then—
"Miss Hokushin."
Unwilling to let Kevin be led by the nose, MEI cut in sharply. "All those details you just mentioned... this highly classified data regarding the so-called 'Honkai'. Where exactly did you get your hands on it?"
Hearing the question...
"..."
Raiden Mei didn't answer immediately.
She knew MEI was suspicious of her.
It was the exact same suspicion she had harbored toward a certain someone, back before she had ever stepped foot into the world of the Honkai.
Back then, she hadn't trusted him at all. She had brushed him off with a few excuses, then turned right around and called the police. She hadn't even wanted to bother her overworked father with the incident.
And now, the tables had turned. She was the one facing that exact same scrutiny—having once stood on the receiving end as the skeptic.
Because of that, she knew exactly what was going through MEI's head right now.
If anything, she was more surprised by Kevin. He had actually just believed her. Unquestioningly.
Right now, he really reminded her of Kiana.
If Ling Ke had run into Kiana back then instead of me...
The thought flashed through her mind out of nowhere. She conveniently ignored the fact that Ling Ke's limited foresight at the time would never have been enough to track Kiana down. After all, the Third Honkai Eruption had still been over half a year away.
But right now...
Caught up in the feeling, Raiden Mei let herself follow that train of thought...
What would Kiana do?
The answer came to her in a heartbeat. After all, she knew the girl far too well.
Just like Kevin had moments ago, Kiana would undoubtedly choose to trust them. To trust the person offering them the truth. Even this Kevin, who hadn't known of the Honkai's existence until today, still chose to believe her. And Kiana... Kiana had crossed paths with the Honkai long ago.
Unbidden, an image flashed through her mind: a certain white-haired girl tilting her head up and patting her chest with boundless confidence. "Don't worry, just leave it all to me!"
At the thought, the corners of Raiden Mei's mouth curled upward. It was a long-absent expression; she hadn't smiled in what felt like an eternity. Yet as she finally did, her heart swelled with a familiar, comforting warmth—all because of that girl.
Once again, she had drawn courage from her.
Mei had traveled all the way down to Nagazora for this, but right now, she realized she no longer needed to ask Kevin which path she should take. She had already found her answer in the conversation they just shared.
Making up her mind, she spoke.
"I'm sorry. I lied to you earlier." Raiden Mei bowed her head in a solemn apology to MEI and Kevin.
When she raised her head again, the look on her face was incredibly resolute. "My name isn't Hokushin, and I'm not some lone traveler wandering the world."
"My real name is Raiden Mei."
"I come from the future—over fifty thousand years from now."
"I..."
She enunciated every word. "I will come clean with you and tell you everything I know."
"And I hope we can work together."
"Ultimately, I want us to reach a win-win scenario, so we can both welcome the beautiful future we desire."
In that moment...
"!!!"
Not far away, Kevin Kaslana—currently disguised as an elderly man with the help of the Puppet of Domination: Sparkle—looked genuinely astonished.
He clearly hadn't expected this Raiden Mei to make such a drastic choice right here and now.
She had never been this decisive before.
Even just a moment ago, he had seen her as entirely too green—hopelessly lost, hesitating in the most unsightly way.
So what on earth had just changed her?
"Surprised?"
Sitting directly across from him, the Puppet of Domination: Sparkle smiled in playful amusement. "Wasn't it Kaslana that changed her?"
"The very thing you've practically thrown away."
"..."
Kevin fell silent once more.
A storm of thoughts raced through his mind.
But...
"Tsk, tsk~"
He didn't notice. And Raiden Mei, sitting a short distance away, was even less likely to catch it.
' Come clean? Step into a beautiful future together? ' A deeply mocking grin twisted the Puppet of Domination: Sparkle's face. "Hah~"
"She really is just like the old me..."
"Utterly foolish!"